The goal of this project is to understand the current evidence base, what is working well and what could be improved in terms of trauma-informed approaches in higher education (TIA-HE). It aims to build knowledge, collaborations, and practice that supports people who have experienced trauma to engage with and thrive through higher education.

Trauma-informed approaches in higher education settings are multifaceted and relevant across the whole system. They include, but are not limited to, trauma-informed pedagogy — the method and practice of teaching that takes into consideration the effect of trauma on individuals and their learning (both positive and negative), and applies across teaching, materials, assessment, supervision, culture and the psychological and physical environments.

We have drafted some initial standards for trauma-informed pedagogy in higher education and have started to pilot processes for measuring current practice. We are reviewing the standards, the measurement approach and considering next steps for development. We have also undertaken a small-scale qualitative study of the experiences of undergraduate students who have symptoms of PTSD during their degrees (led by Rhian Kant). We plan to publish both the pilot and the qualitative study in the near future.

We are collaborating with colleagues from different specialities/faculties/schools, across a number of higher education organisations to develop the Trauma-Informed Approaches to Higher Education (TIP-HE) Network.

Dr Rachel Paskell is the Co-Chair of the TIP-HE Network’s Steering Group and can be contacted for information about the projects at Bath. Please get in contact if you want to find out more and/or join the network.

Team members

We are a mixed team of clinical psychology doctorate trainees, psychology undergraduate and master's students, lecturers, supervisors, and people with personal experiences of mental health difficulties.

Our core members are:

• Dr Rachel Paskell - Lecturer and Director of Studies, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, University of Bath
• Rhian Kant - Trainee Clinical Psychologist
• Elizabeth Henshaw - Trainee Clinical Psychologist
• Faiza Abdul Aziz - student, MSc Applied Clinical Psychology
• Pip Stewart - student, MSc Applied Clinical Psychology
• Lucy Clarkson - Teaching Fellow, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Expected outputs

• A Trauma-Informed Approaches to Higher Education (TIA-HE) Network.
• A set of core standards of trauma-informed pedagogy in higher education and methods to measure against these in practice.
• Recommendations relating to good practice and areas for improvement for higher education programmes that participate.
• Papers, reports and presentations on project findings and outputs.
• Peer-reviewed publication(s).

Project phases

This project will have six main phases:

• Development of draft trauma-informed pedagogy standards from existing literature - complete
• Piloting the standards and associated measurement tools in the Department of Psychology - complete
• Sharing findings from the pilot, with suggested development areas - ongoing
• Building a trauma-informed approaches network across higher education organisations - ongoing
• Refinement of the trauma-informed pedagogy standards and measurement approach - ongoing
• Continued sharing of key findings, promotion of good practice and implementing change - ongoing